Core A Administrative Core The Administrative Core is under the Direction of the Program Director, Dr. Richard J. Whitiey. As the responsible Principal Investigator for the Program Project Grant, he will provide the scientiflc and administrative leadership for the overall program. He will be assisted in these tasks by Drs. G. Yancey Gillespie and James M. Markert, Program Co-Directors. Together, these Administrative Core Leaders will provide centralized management support, and collaborative research support for all research projects of this two-institution Program Project Grant. The purpose of this Core is to provide the administrative framework to facilitate the rapid and expeditious translation of our basic science advances into therapeutic opportunities for humans. The interdigitation of molecular virology, cellular biology. In vitro screening, animal model studies, and other facilitating work will be coordinated by the Administrative Core. Administrative funcflons also include oversight of operations and budgetary issues for all Program Project investigators and Core Leaders. Quarterly meetings with all of the Project and Core leaders will be organized and coordinated to ensure that the research activities proceed in a timely fashion and that all program participants have an informal forum to shape and focus the direction of the research activities. These meetings will also enhance the integration of project and core activities with each other, based on priorities that are identifled from results presented at each meeting. The Administrative Core will coordinate an annual meeting with the External Advisory Committee which will evaluate the progress of the individual Program projects and the services provided by the Cores. The External Advisory Committee is compised of 3 outstanding scientists. Dr. Thomas Shenk, virologist, Dr. Darell D. Bigner, glioma expert and Dr. Robert Martuza, a leader in viral oncolysis and clinical studies. All efforts will be focused on the flmely translation of the flndings on molecular biology of herpes simplex viruses and the cellular biology of the virus-host relation to the treatment of human malignant gliomas. This program project grant has the full support of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Chicago. Letters of support appear from Drs. C Garrison (President, UAB), E Capiluto (Provost, UAB), R Rich (Dean, School of Medicine, UAB), E Partridge (Director, UAB Comprehensvive Cancer Center), S Stagno (Chair, Department of Pediatircs) and M. LeBeau (Director, The University of Chicago Cancer Center). RELEVANCE (See instructions):